re: Best place(in the South) to live as a young single college grad

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Charleston is growing twice as fast as Savannah, too, currently. And from 2000 to 2011 Charleston added approximately 65,000 new residents. Savannah added a/b 8,000.

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Both Charleston and Savannah 30 years ago were small, historical port cities that outside of shipping relied primarily on tourism to generate economic growth. Charleston, though, has managed to foster a booming economic sector in tech and manufacturing that has poured tons of money into downtown (Blackbaud, Benefitfocus, Boeing, etc). If you haven't been to Charleston in the past 3-5 years then you have no idea how explosive growth here has been... all of Upper King has been revitalized w/ tons of new bars, shops and restaurants. Charleston is now one of the primary cultural centers of the South (if it wasn't before). Annually, Charleston hosts Spoleto, Piccolo Spoleto, Food + Wine festival, Charleston Fashion Week, SEWE, and the list goes on. City leaders have marketed the city well outside of the South, too, so that it's become a fashionable destination city for residents of NYC and other large metro areas. On top of all that, Charleston has one of the best restaurant scenes in the country. 3/5 of the last James Beard Southeast award winners are from here (zero EVER from Savannah) and The Ordinary (new restaurant) was just shortlisted as Best New Restaurant in the country (along w/ one from Chicago, one from NYC, two from SF)... and one of our chefs made the top 5 overall category, too. In 2011, Husk (another local restaurant) was named by Bon Apetit as the Best New Restaurant in the country. Charleston is growing twice as fast as Savannah, too, currently. And from 2000 to 2011 Charleston added approximately 65,000 new residents. Savannah added a/b 8,000.

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